Peter E.

I can see his point. I feel that if the roles where reversed we would feel the same. To some people trout and salmon fishing is king and these are more delicate fish. I am a bass fisherman when it comes to fresh water. I do not know if any of ya'll remember when the Japanese government put must catch must kill on large mouth bass there? As I recall there was an article about it in BASS Masters magazine about it a few years ago. Anyway most Japanesse anglers are strictly catch and release and the Idea of having to kill their beloved game fish turned some of their anglers against fishing all together. You see the japanesse comercail fishing industry put the squeeze on the Japanesse government about bass because they beleived that bass where destroying their fisheries. I really don't know how that ended and would be interested to know. The moral of the story is that each particular species of game fish has a following of anglers and in order to protect that species they will go to great lengths. Some do not perhaps take it as stoically as our Japanesse couterparts with some refusing to fish until that law is lifted. America is a land of free speech and freedom of press. I praise the gentleman who wrote that article for his frankness and devotion for his favored species of game fish. I will give a pat on the back of anyone who fights for the conservation of America's game fish. That is my feeling as an American citizen, and a Christain devoted to the stewardship of this land that God has entrusted to us. Peter Besides I think Salmon is delicious.

This time of year I like to fish fast with a 6'6" rod and reel combo, pitching a spinner bait going from waking to say three feet down. With each fish I catch on the waked spinner bait I follow it with a F-11 Rapala. With each fish caught 3' down I follow it with an X-Rap. After working the area over like that I will usually throw a baby brush hog. I move fast picking up the most active schools in the shallows. When fishing a deeper body of water I take a half ounce Zoro Agitator. Roll it a cross or near the bottom, follow with a deep diver, and finish off with a 1/4 ounce jig and pig (I like a slow fall). Well thats my style and I'm sticking to it. Peter

You gentlemen are exactly right. Personally I think that the Japanesse would give us stiff competition, maybe even beat us. IMO they as a nation are the best finnesse fisherman in the world and their waters have the highest pressure. We may have invented the SPORT, but they can and do seem to be able to teach us a thing or two. Peter

One would say that fishing is not a sport although i would like to say that it is, not only due to Mr. Webstr's wordy book but, also i look at the amount of physical strain that can come from standing in place for up to eight hours. The body is not made to do so. Also I would point out the amount of intense mental concentration that come from making multiple presentations, feeling for the suttle differences between a branch and a bass softly taking a bait. Also on member put it that with the bass boats he with the best boat has the biggest advantage. Well do you think that the equiptment of the Olympic athletes is equal? The answer is an obvious no. There is millions of dollars spent on making the equiptment our athletes use a cut above the rest, all nations that can afford to do so do so. The only real problem I can see to the idea of making bass fishing an Olympic sport is the fact that; although where ever Americans seem to go we bring bass and bass fishing with us is that it does not always catch on with the local population. I would love to see Bass fishing as an Olympic sport but I do not think we will see such a thing in our life time, but who knows. By the way RoLo that is a great Blue fish on your avatar, love catching them myself on light tackle. Peter

I agree with the black light because any light that does not attract dem dar bugs is a good thing. I like to throw say: Black Jitter sticks, Large black Hula Poppers, Black Super spooks, and large black colorado bladed spinner baits. I like to fish mostly top water or near to it. I beleive that the fish mostly key in on the silloettes of the lures more than anything else. I also go with big lures that make alot of noise or throw off a good vibration. Like Purple Bass Cat said i fish most of the same places i do during the day light hours. Like you i also like to key in on lighted docks. A good head lamp is a must also especailly if you get the kind with the blacklight lenses. Good Luck bud and hang on i catch most of my biggest bass at night. Peter

Panamoka_Bassin, I like to wade in fast flowing hard bottom creeks and streams for Kentucky Red Eye (spotted bass), but once the days reach about 70 degrees or so then well, I walk between 4-6 miles in waders and 7-10 miles up and down creeks and small rivers. To be honest I would rather walk up stream and flaot down in a float tube. I am with Avid in that the ponds and most lakes locally are soft bottomed. I also wade for trout and reds in the flats during the summer. Take Care & God Bless, Peter By the Way: GO USA!

Hey 12 gauge, Good call on the way you selected that spinner bait! Now you are thinking man. Keep this in mind if you had that idea, then how many other people did too? I am not knocking your idea, it is a great idea straight by the book. Think of the reasons that you chose that spinner bait color and check for other spinner baits with different colors that let you get the same visisbility. Break out of the mold every now and then because if alot of people had that idea then alot of fish have seen that lure. Don't worry about the fact that you can't use a gas powered motor in that lake of yours. MY favorite small lake is the same way, of course the fact that it is part of Taladega National Forest probably has something to do with that. About four years ago I decided to take up Flats fishing and to start with I did not so much as bring a jon boat. So I learned to wade fish. In that lake of yours you could do the same thing, becareful however not to disturb the bedds that the bass will clear out in the next month. Strap on an old pair of tenni pumps (tennis shoes) and head out, SLOWLY and QUIETLY! Keep it on the down low. Remember to keep a low profile as well or learn to make long casts. If you can walk all the way around the lake and check for points, drop offs, old fallen trees, standing timber, protected bays, and such. Broaden your horizons on that lake of yours. By the way keep an eye out for mister no-shoulders. Especailly a cotton mouth, that is the meanest creature that God ever created, just short of a bream! Cats as I remeber like to gravitate to areas of cover in the mid to deep ranges of the water. Bass do about the same thing. Bass however like to move into the shallows to feed during low light conditions. I beleive cats do the same thing ( I may be wrong, I rarely fish for cats). Like I said bass are predictable animals and once you have walked the edge of your lake then you have a variety of cover that you can choose from and then you are better able to catch fish on a more regular basis. By the way a Rapala is all the "Bass Shot" you need (I admit I thought it was funny too). Let me stress again that you should always follow all state laws for fishing in your state. Two of my good freinds are game wardens and i would hate for you to meet any of their colleagues any time. Well take care and God Bless, Peter Post scriptus, Always feel free to post any questions you may have our members love to give advice and it is nearly always as good as it gets.

I love to fish deep diving crank baits in slack waters just off the main current. I look loooking for eddies and so on. Current is the biggest factor in my spot fishing. Craw fish patterrns in the spring, bream in the summer, and shad patterns in the fall. Spots are the easiest to catch in the early sprinf like you said. That's just my opinion though. Peter

Hey 12 gauge, It's good to have you aboard! Welcome to the forum and you cmae to the right palce! Best forum known to any bass angler! (I know I looked) Anyway take it from me when starting out there are not alot of lures that you really need to have to catch lots of fish and big ones too. Simple lures like a straight back F-11 Rapala in plain black and silver are deadly any where there are fish, regardless of species. Simple inexpensive 1/4 oz. spinner baits would do great in that cove of yours, Try green and Chartruess tandem spins there. A weedless frog will be deadly later in the year. a few basic colored worms will do you alot of good. A 3/16 oz jig will give you some kicks (red and brown are good colors often over looked by most anglers). Above all else keep it simple and have fun. Remeber that fishing is all about putting that lure in the right place at the right time! To better understand that look for info on bass behavior. I beleive we have articles like that on the resource. Don't get freaked out by that part about understanding their behavior, fish are predictable animals. Keep a journal, and invest in a jon boat and trolling motor (or freinds with both) or kick boat (with oars if possible). Obey state creel limits and remeber every fish you take out is one less fish to catch later! Well good luck Learn the basics of retreival for each lure (like twitching that Rapala or bouncing that jig just right) and the rest as they say will be history. Take Care and God Bless, Peter Post Scriptus, on the jigs and worms 1/8 to every five feet of depth is a good rule of how heavy of a weight you want to fish with. And Freinds make bad fishing days good and good ones better.

There are two tools that will always make a good fisherman better, that is a chart and a good depth finder. The charts as Rolo had pointed out are essentail to locating fish in an area that is unknown, and as Rolo pointed out if you take the time to study a map before even visiting a new body of water then you have cut off four hours of fishing time in search of drop offs and points,bays and flats. A depth finder will then help you to find productive structure on the floor of the water body. Simply taking the time to search the water with a depth finder is a great step in being more effeceint in fishing. If an angler has a GPS then you can count off another two hours of search time on the water, and that angle can return back to that same spot within a couple of feet everytime after that. A good GPS is one of the best tools for moving about on the inshore flats and in true swamps complete with their floating Islands which can leave a person disorinted for hours. But as RoLo pointed out the best tool a fisherman has is his own reasoning ability. Peter

Alright Matt in house bass part three they discussed how a bass will carry a jig around and kind of chew it, like it would a crawfish. But unlike the crawfish or even a soft plastic worm he will inevitabley spitt that jig. I have noticed this also, in bass I have caught. The rig I spoke of will have bass swallow it ocassionally. This is a problem for catch and release. Does this clear up my last post? Matt when you asked what type of intellegence is that, it is to me, the use of the bass' ability to reason. The fish takes the information that it has collected through past experiences and sensory preception and formed it in to increasingly complex pattern. From, Ow! that hurt, to that did not feel natural and it hurt; to, that did not move naturally and it did not feel natural and it hurt; and so on and so forth until these fish w/o all my wording go through a simular process on their own. They become way of the lure that caught them, then wary of that type of lure. This is what we call conditioning. A Russain scientist in the 1800's named Pavlov did experiments on his do to see ho an animal can be conditioned for a certain response. What type of intellegence is that? The same kind we use to keep our selves from shoving our fingers in a lit candle's flame, twice. Peter

Alright boys here goes, Matt_fly, when you spoke about the way a bass would not swallow a jig, I would have to say that you are without doubt right. But the combination lure I will describe to you is one great lure that a bass will hold on to and even, dare I say, swallow! Yes, I dare say. What I do for alll of my jig presentations, unless a roller jig or stand up jig presentation is required, is I rig a Slipp-n-Jig and then tie on a 4/0 wide gap hook and texas rig a paca craw. Now what a Slip-n-Jig is, is a worm dancer or in laymens terms a bullet weight endowed with a skirt. A Paca Craw is a tube bait that resembles a craw fish worm. Here are the sotes that anyone can look at to get an idea of what this rig would look like: www.cyclonebaits.com & www.netbait.com. The Cyclone Baits are made in Many, Louisiana and the NetBaits are made in Georgiana, Alabama. I had always wondered why a bass would sometimes end up swallowing the Slip-n-Jig Paca Craw combo but not an ordinary jig and you answer in the first post sums it up. The Bass can chew on that soft tube and feel that they are geting somewhere. To the big bass location I notice that we all say that we find bass either in the shallows near deep water or vica versa. I beleive as do most of us that heses bass have pegged out these types of areas because they offer protection in the deep water and easy access to feeding in the shallow. It is the combination of these two depths bing so close together that I beleive draws these big bass. Bass learning is as Matt_Fly pointed out is through imperical knowledge for the most part but like all other creatures they are not simply a blank slate at birth, they are gifted by instinct. Instinctual behavior is what determines a bass' home area, feeding preferences, and what gets him caught. It is the imperical knowledge that can keep him from being caught twice. Bass use reason to a certain extent to peice together the imperical data and instinctual knowledge and past experience to for habits and behavioral patterns just as we do. Bass simply do this with out giving thought to the matter. All animals with a functioning brain do this. Peter

Matt_fly, I ask your forgiveness for underestimating your new topic. It has been one of the finest I have ever had the privelege to read. Give me a little while and after I do some home work on links for our fellow readers I would love to add my small two cents. I have found a way to get a bass to swallow a jig like lure (not a jig persey), let me get pictures together and what not first. Peter

Hey bud, I really hope this post of your goes good, but you should check Rolo's post called "Are big bass smart?". In that topic post we thouroughly explored the question as to rather or not bass in general are smart and how they gain intellegence, instinctual behavior, locational behavior, and so on. I look forward to checking on the links you showed and I hope that this post takes off as well as the one mentioned did. I think the basses behavior and their learning curve are a big key to catching more and bigger fish. Good luck, I will check in later. Peter

RoLo I am in complete agreement with your last post and I am glad we (all Bass Rescourse Members) have this forum so that all of our members can so easily express their ideas, experience, and questions. by the way Vyron I would be offended if you took that avatar off. Peter

Well RoLo that is interesting question and it depends on your beleif on innate knowledge for these animale versus imperical knowledge. As we know innate knowledge is instincts and the idea that animals even we are born with some knowledge, this leads to reactions and the knowledge like for a bass as to what to eat. That is instinct, none of us doubt that these animals definately rely on instinct, we see this in a reaction strike. Imperical knowledge is the knowledge we learn through our senses as the ideas we come to through these stimuli. Bass as we know can be spooked and over time they will cease to hit certain lures or react as well to certain techinques. We all have learned over time that as the bass change in their likes and dislikes we as fishermen must change our techinques and so on to catch fish. These are facts that I am sure that we can all agree to just as easily as icktheologist and fisheries biologist do. Now the question as to rather or not Big Bass are any smarter that smaller bass. Well that depends on who you ask. If you ask Doug Hannon whom some of you may have heard of, he will tell you that the biggest bass in a system are the first to be caught because thay are the largest and therefore the most agressive. He backs this up by saying that without this large over grown appetite these fish would not have grown to the huge size that they are. He instead says that we have built up this beleif over time that since we catch so few of these large bass and so many of these smaller bass that these fish muste well, dumber than the big ones. However, he argues that the trick with catching big bass is not as hard as we may think. It is not so much a matter of outsmarting these fish but more of being in the right place at the right time, this may seem vague so let me elaborate. Hannon beleives that to catch bass that make up only say 1-2% of the population you must understand the feeding and reproductive needs of the fish. With the feeding you must find a location where the bass can gain the most food in-take with the least energy out-put. In saying this too many people think that big bass are exclusively a deep water fish when in his opinion nothing could be farther from the truth. With very few exceptions like the deep California resivoirs. The ideal places are shallows off of and next to the deepest portions of the lake. Also look for the places where the light penetration is the highest and the weed growth is at the highest, and where the food chain as he puts it "pumps at the highest rate". The way this should look idealy is this: large shallow weed flat composed of multiple weed types with open holes in it 4-8 feet deep. Also things like: A variety of other cover like stumps, brush and so on, with water 20+' deep nearby. An additional bonus is an inflowing creek that will moderate temperature changes. He states that since these fish feed the most and are the most aggressive that you must seek out places that are either hard to get to or receive little to no fishing pressure. Hannon beleives that location determines big bass more than anything else. Hannon has alot of proof that what he beleives is right because in 1969 when he dedicated his life to catching and learning about big bass up until 1980 when he quite counting he had caught over 400 bass over ten pounds, 11 over 14#'s and three over 15#'s. I imagine by now his numbers must be staggering to say the least. I beleive that it is a combination of location, innate knowledge, and imperical knowlege that makes these bass so hard to catch. I beleive that the biggest problem is that we as fishermen are our own biggest enemies, because with every big bass we take out we damage the stocks in that pond, lake or section of river. These large females and males offspring are what up the majority of the bass that after hatching have the best chance of surviving because of their parents superior genes. So I urge you please practice either selective harvest or catch and release and with the large beautiful 10+ bass that we all covit so much please take a Kodak moment with the fish and carefully release the fish. That is my personal policy and my policy as a guide. When my customers just have to keep that fish then they pay for it. $150 extra to the price of the trip. I do this because the areas I guide on are small ecosystems that depend on the largest males and females to keep up a healthy population. If a dead fish on their wall is worth it to them then it has to be worth it to me. But if they choose to have a fiberglass mount then I will do all I can to make sure that that fish is represented right. With multiple measurements and multiple pictures taken from every conseiveable angle. Well RoLo my freind I hope that that clears some stuff for you I know it did for me. Peter

Well GOTCHaBACk, I never had them spray me with lead but I was getting close or they were anyway. I check on taking a gun with me on those fishing trips and i found out from a freind of mine who is a game warden and found out that it is illegal to hunt deer from a boat. Besides i know the day I bring a gun is the day they don't come to the creek : oh well. Peter

Well Will I do own the land but, the creek is the boundrary of my family's land. I would like ya'll to know that I am not bashing hunters, because I hunt also, though not often. I simply get tired of my favorite fishing holes being controlled by hunters because they feel that my presence will scare the deer away and yet I feel that I have seen the most and biggest deer when I am fishing. In one day I had a six and an eight point, cross a beaver dam not 20 feet away. I see them feeding and drinking along the creek bank all the time and seeing these animals as a companion and not as prey gives a person appreciation for the Native Americans' veiw that all animals were their kin. Of course I am a quarter Creek, so I got that through genetics. I love hunting but I always feel bad for killing that animal. I am by no means a PETA supporter, but an admirer of God's creations. I think that that veiw has made each fishing trip more and more rewarding. Peter

You Know What Makes Me Sick? (Earl Pitts American) I don't know about you but I am as fond of hunting as the next guy, until it interferes with my fishing >!!!! I know that I should not be bitter about the fact that alot of my favorite ponds, creeks, swamps, and lakes are owned by these huge hunting clubs around the area :-[. But I can't Help It :'(!!! I sympathise with them in the fact that they have only a few months to get their hunting fix in before that is gone, but even on my own property where our family and freinds hunt, and they do not hunt near the areas I fish, I still sometimes feel like I am in the middle of a War Zone . I had to do the unthinkable on of the last times I fished this month, I had to use a cell phone to call someone !!! I had to remind my cousin that I was in the Creek and that I would appreciate it if they would kindly not shoot skeet in that general area >. My cousin apologized for having done so and to cut it out then he invited me to go hunting with him :-/! I love my family but COME ON :-?! Due to hunting Season here in the great state of Alabama it has been a full three weeks since I have so much as wet a line. I caught myself using my sister's aquarium to check actions on a new slip jig I had bought the day before :-?. I figured I would start this topic as simply a source of ranting and raving over the complications of winter. Please, B@#$% as much as you want about the dulldrums of winter, I just did! Oh and Keep it Clean! This is Ol' Peter here, Pete's OFF!!!!

I am in complete agreement with dodgeguy, no fish fishts harder than a bream! By the way for a minute I thought those bream that Senko 77 showed links to were triple tails! Although I will say that as far as bass go, I think that a spotted bass fights the hardest. Peter

Well if you don't have a camera then after you weigh the fish and measure it add two pounds and 4 inches and maybe the folks you give the fishing story to will guess the actual size of the fish . Peter

Raul i apologize if it seemed that I was trying to lecture you. But I was simply giving my ideas on the subject based on my observations and yes I do alot of inshore fishing every time I get the chance. I would like to say that I have great respect for anglers that have had the number of years fishing as you have and the obvious experience that you seem to have from what I have read on your thoughts on the forum. This said, I have noticed that the hottest bite has a coalation between the moon phase. Please however consider my points, even if they are in your opinion false. Let us agree to disagree on this issue. The whole point of this and all of our forums is to express an opinion that we beleive would be benefical to our fellow members. I hope that whomever reads this reply takes a lesson of how an angler should conduct themselves by being respectful to all fellow anglers. God Bless you Raul, Peter

Hold on there Raul, there is a relation between moon phases and fish activity, let me explain with the basic two extremes. New Moon or No Moon: Fish will concentrate most of their feeding activity to the day light hours and also makes fishing in the early mornings more productive due to the lack of feeding during the night time hours. Full moon: The increased feeding activity during the night time hours make fishing in the morning less productive and afternoon fishing more so. The really good bite will not take place until afternoon. With a full moon think of it this way: if you are up all night partying how well do you get going in the mornings? You can take this lesson by looking at a lunar chart and determining when the hottest bite will be during a 24 hour course. Peter

Any time Florida Strain bass and Black bass are found together there will be cross breading and therefore yes there will be hybrids this is not uncommon in LA (Lower Alabama) and in Southern Georgia. They are divergent species that are also Homolognous and can therefore cross breed and creat viable offspring that are capable of reproducing their own offspring. I can't remember the actual scientific name for this occurence because I an to lazy to get my biology book out of the car. Peter

Aaron, To some fishermen bass fishing is ecology, successful bass fishing starts with understanding the bass' ecosystem. The effects his particular ecosystem has on that fish and his role in that ecosystem. Once a fisherman comes to understand this and other elements such as bass behavior then that angler gains an edge over the average weekend warrior fisherman. Fishing is one of the finest examples of ecological impacts on species and the enviroment they inhabit. You could fill 3-5 pages simply explaining their effect on their ecosystem, even an ecosystem as small as a one acre farm pond. Peter